Cosmos-208 is an optical reconnaissance satellite of the Zenit-2M type with an additional installed (in the Nauka module) instrumentation for measuring sky gamma radiation.
| Cosmos-208 | |
|---|---|
| Wave band | gamma rays |
| NSSDC ID | 1968-022A |
| Location | geocentric orbit |
| Orbit height | ~ 208/274 km |
| Period of treatment | 89.4 min |
| Launch date | March 21, 1968 09:50:00 UTC |
| Launch location |  Baikonur |
| Means of putting into orbit | Sunrise 11А57 |
| Date of detour | April 2, 1968 |
| Weight | 4 tons |
| Type of telescope | spectrometer |
| Scientific instruments | |
| gas proportional meter |
| Cherenkov telescope spectrometer |
Content
Tools
One of the scientific instruments of the satellite was an X-ray energy spectrometer (2-50 keV) composed of four gas (90% xenon, 10% methane) proportional counters with a plastic scintillator used as an anti-coincidence system for counters. The total effective area of the spectrometer was about 270 sq. Cm. The spectrometer was placed under the collimator 32 angular minutes x 18 degrees [1]
The gamma spectrometer onboard the Cosmos-208 satellite was designed to register gamma quanta with energies above> 50 MeV. The tool was an improved version of the instruments installed on the Proton-1 and Proton-2 satellites [1] . On the satellite Cosmos-208 the telescope consisted of two Cherenkov counters, the radiating volumes of which were plexiglass (upper counter) and lead glass (lower counter). The counters were placed in a plastic scintillator shell, which serves as an anti-coincidence protection for the main detectors. A gamma quanta converter for Cerenkov counters was a 4 mm layer of CsI (Tl) crystal and a 2 mm layer of lead mounted on the front wall of the radiative volume of the upper detector. The use of the Cherenkov counter instead of a scintillation counter as the upper detector made it possible to significantly improve the selective sensitivity to charged particles [2] .
Main results
The total effective time of the gamma telescope, after filtering the periods when the satellite was in the radiation belts of the Earth, was only about 152 hours. In view of this, the number of gamma-quanta of cosmic origin, registered by the instrument, was small. A reliable result of measurements of a gamma telescope on the Kosmos-208 satellite was to obtain upper limits for the surface brightness of the sky in the range of 50–1600 MeV: <10 −4 phot / (sq. Cm sec) [2] . The values of the upper limits obtained in the experiment on the satellite Cosmos-208 are consistent with the results of measurements of other instruments, including the results of the year of observations of the American satellite OSO-3 , which operated at about the same time.
Other Space Satellite Experimental Experiments
- Cosmos-251
- Cosmos-264
- Cosmos-428
- Cosmos-461
Links
- Galper A.M., Kirillov-Ugryumov V.G., Luchkov B.I., Prilutsky O.F. Overview of Early Gamma Astronomy // UFN . - 1972. - V. 14 , № 5 . - p . 630-654 .
- Information about the satellite series Cosmos (English) . Nasa The appeal date is June 28, 2010. Archived April 11, 2012.
See also
- List of spacecraft with x-ray and gamma detectors on board
Notes
- ↑ Grigorov, NL ; Kalinkin, LF; Melioranskii, AS; Nesterov, VE; Pryakhin, EA; Savenko, IA; Sysoev, EA; Éstulin, IV Instrument for the High-Energy Gamma-Rays in the Primary Cosmic Radiation // Cosmic Research . - 1967. - Vol . 5 , No. 1 . - p . 107 .
- ↑ 1 2 Bratolyubova-Tsulukidze, LS; Grigorov, NL ; Kalinkin, LF; Melioranskij, AS; Pryakhin, EA; Savenko, IA; Yufarkin, V. Ya. The Cosmic Research . Measurements of the streams of gamma-quanta with energies above 50 MeV in Cosmos 208 // Cosmic Research . - 1970. - T. 8 . - p . 136-139 .